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Death in the Afternoon
Overview Death in the Afternoon ''is the first studio album by New Threads and is the first album in the ''Threadsboro saga. The album was written in Justin Siegel's basement in Boston, Massachusetts in December 2016. ''Seymour Butts'' & Bootleg EP #1 Following the re-naming of Seymour Butts to New Threads, members Jacob Keplinger and Justin Siegel got to work on writing songs almost immediately. While the original plan was to use a majority of the tracks from Seymour Butts ''for the debut New Threads album (such as "From A Distance, She's Not That Bad," "Hey Kid, You're A Star," and "Kathy"), Keplinger and Siegel ended up writing 7 of the album's 10 songs in Siegel's basement in Boston, Massachusetts in December 2016. Once they returned to Tennessee in January, they demoed 4 songs that would eventually become ''Bootleg EP #1. The EP was scheduled to be the first of 3, but Keplinger says he "significantly overestimated" how long the album process would take, and thus they only recorded one EP. The EP was released on January 20, 2017. Along with the release of Bootleg EP #1, Robby Angelotti and Nick Cheater were added to the band on bass and lead guitar, respectively. Both Angelotti and Cheater were friends of Siegel's prior to their addition, and all four members lived in the same dorm building at MTSU. Once the lineup was secured, Keplinger and Siegel set out to record drum tracks for the upcoming album. They started by tracking drums for "18 Years," "Calvin Klein," and "Where Do We Go From Here" in a practice room at MTSU's music school. While they managed to have good luck on the first day of tracking, the next was a bit more difficult. They set out the following day to track "I Want To Go Home," "Fly Away," "Fraternity King," and "Next Year," but during the fourth song's drum takes, they were interrupted by music school dean Michael Parkinson. Parkinson told the band they were not allowed to track in the practice rooms, and they were effectively banned from doing so again. This proved to be a great hurdle for them, as they still needed drum tracks for 3 more songs ("Next Year," "I Can't Stop Loving You," "11"). The failure to get a decent drum take for "Next Year" led to the song getting cut from the album's final tracklisting, but it was swiftly replaced by "The City," a track about the band's impromptu trip to St. Louis in January. Jacob and Justin booked 4 hours at Autograph Rehearsal Studios in Murfreesboro and tracked the final 3 songs' drums in there. Now, with the drum tracks complete, they set up shop in Keplinger's dorm room and finished the album in there. Once recording had completed in early February, the album was mixed and mastered by Keplinger and Angelotti in Angelotti and Cheater's dorm room. Promotion and Release The album's first single was "18 Years," and was accompanied by a music video depicting bassist Robby Angelotti receiving his first haircut at a barbershop. It was released on February 17, 2017, and was received well by the band's initial fanbase. A week later, they announced the album's title would be Death in the Afternoon and that it would release on March 24, 2017, just over a month after "18 Years." While no other videos were released, "Calvin Klein" and "Fraternity King" were released as singles over the next month. "11" and "The City" also surfaced online as instant-gratification tracks to promote the album's pre-order. Promotional shots of the band were taken by MTSU photographer Tony Kozlosky, and were used heavily in both promo tools and even on the album's cover. On March 24, 2017, the band released Death in the Afternoon, but the reception was lackluster. It took months for "18 Years" to reach even 1,000 plays on Spotify, and neither "Calvin Klein" nor "Fraternity King" were able to replicate that number. It was a grim time for the band, and they went into a bit of a hiatus following the release. It wasn't until September that the band began playing live again, teasing new material and eventually seeing the departure of Angelotti in October. Mesa Dog Records was dissolved in early 2018, leading to the creation of Pink Hat Records and a new dawn for the band. Tracklist Death in the Afternoon # I Want To Go Home - Keplinger # 18 Years - Keplinger # Calvin Klein - Keplinger, Siegel # Fraternity King - Keplinger, Siegel # I Can't Stop Loving You - Keplinger, Siegel # Where Do We Go From Here? - Keplinger, Siegel # 11 - Keplinger, Siegel # The City - Keplinger # Fly Away - Keplinger, Siegel # I Need Another Year - Keplinger, Siegel Bootleg EP #1 # I Want To Go Home - Keplinger # Where Do We Go From Here - Keplinger, Siegel # Next Year - Keplinger # Fly Away - Keplinger, Siegel Trivia *The album's title, Death in the Afternoon, is a direct reference to Ernest Hemingway's novel of the same name, a book that Keplinger read prior to the band's creation. It served as a heavy influence on the album's themes. *The album was written in the same basement that the eventual Pink Hat Studios was built in following the release of the band's fourth album, Threadsboro. *"Fraternity King" is a song directly about Justin Siegel's roommate at the time, and includes multiple references to their relationship. *This is the first album in the Threadsboro saga. *While this was Angelotti’s last official release with New Threads, he did appear in production credits for Keplinger’s 2017 solo effort The Russ Anderson Mixtape, as well as on the credits for the band’s 2019 album Felonious Wilma, both for backing vocals in “The Camping Song” and for video work on “Alone, Leave Me.” *In “The City”, a guitar riff next heard in “Alcohol” and “Growing Pains” is teased at the end of the song. Credits * Jacob Keplinger - vocals, guitar, keys, engineering, mixing, mastering, art direction and design * Justin Siegel - drums, vocals * Robby Angelotti - bass, vocals, mastering * Nick Cheater - guitar, vocals * Tony Koslosky - photography